Facebook set to hold referendum to end users’ right to vote on privacy policy changes

Washington, Nov 27: Facebook will hold a referendum, possibly later this week, in which it will ask users to abolish their right to vote on changes to the social network’s privacy policies.

The social network had announced last week that it was seeking comments on its proposal to take away its users’ right to vote on these sorts of changes.

If 7,000 comments are received by Wednesday then Facebook, by its own rules, will hold a referendum on the topic, CNN reports.

“We deeply value the feedback we receive from you during our comment period,” Elliot Schrage, Facebook’s vice president for communications, public policy and marketing, wrote.

“In the past, your substantive feedback has led to changes to the proposals we made. However, we found that the voting mechanism, which is triggered by a specific number of comments, actually resulted in a system that incentivized the quantity of comments over their quality,” he said.

“Therefore, we’re proposing to end the voting component of the process in favor of a system that leads to more meaningful feedback and engagement,” he added.

According to the report, Facebook argues it has outgrown the voting and commenting system that currently exists on the site.

“Under our terms, you grant Facebook permission to use, distribute, and share the things you post, subject to the terms and applicable privacy settings. For example, if you upload a photo and share it with your friends, we’ll make that photo available and distribute it to your friends. And, when you delete a photo, we delete it too,” In a statement e-mailed to CNN, Facebook had said on the matter.

Finally, some Facebook users seem not to be bothered that the company wants to take away their right to vote. That’s a right some people didn’t realize they had anyway, the report added. (ANI)